Windhoek  - Namibia's seal-hunting season opened on Wednesday despite efforts by South African animal rights activists to stop the annual cull of the Cape Fur seals along the south-west African country's coast, industry insiders said Thursday.

While there has so far been no culling activity, industry sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the German Press Agency dpa "the cull will go ahead."

The Ministry of Fisheries put out a quota of 86,000 seal pups and 6,000 bulls per year for three years in 2007 to contain the population of an estimated 650,000 seals inhabiting Namibia's coastal waters for the current season.

The furs of the seal pups are sold to an Australian buyer, while the hide of the bulls is used to make leather shoes, among other things.

South Africa-based animal rights lobby group Seal Alert said it would attempt to buy up the complete seal industry in the country from locally-based seal fur buyer Hatem Yavuz.

The purchase was an attempt to banish culling in Namibia.(dpa)